How did so much time go by?

hey hey hey! All's well by me here in the southern hemisphere (i'm now used to orion and the big dipper being upside down -- actually, the night sky is quite simply GORGEOUS, if it were warmer here i'd sit outside every night and enjoy them). School is going well, except that I found out recently that my students didn't have a math teacher last year -- another teacher helped them out sometimes, but they weren't taught much. So that helps to explain the 12% average on the national exam and why so many have such a shaky grasp on fundamentals. My good students probably got tutored. But it leaves me in a weird place rethinking what I should be teaching... I started having review sessions after school, so maybe I'll have 1 each week to re-teach last year's stuff and 1 where students can ask me questions. About a quarter of my students showed up to the first session, which was very exciting! But then they asked me questions that I completely fumbled -- though I have now taught myself to use log tables, antilog tables, and to do calculations by changing numbers into logs and using said tables. fun! Still not sure how to use a slide rule, though...I'm also getting started on health education (I've talked with 2 other teachers about how/what/when to start), and I'm spending a few periods a week with the older students (forms 5 and 6) to help them with English (they have no teacher) and anything else they're interested in -- I'm hoping that'll include cross-cultural discussions and HIV/AIDS education, but we'll see. So, this has been a great week at school because I feel like I'm being effective!

My 2 weeks of PC training in March were great -- some of the sessions we had were really helpful, my counterpart (a teacher who came to most of the training) now knows more about me and where I'm coming from and what type of work I want to do so he can better help me and advocate for me, and it was lots of fun to have so much time with friends! Of course there were a few frustrating cross-cultural moments, including some that made me furious, but oh well... Then I was at site for fewer than 2 weeks before we had our Easter holiday. Those 2 weeks were frustrating because the students hadn't done all of the work I had left for them (notes to copy, problems to try) and they seemed especially unmotivated. Plus I had all these ideas of things I wanted to do but it didn't make sense to get started until after the school break, and then on top of all that I was super excited to see my family!!

I spent my break in Barcelona with my parents and sister, and we had a wonderful time! Delicious food and wine, incredible architecture, and lots of linguistic confusion. I used tribal greetings when I was in Dar, Kiswahili in Spain, and odd English with my family. But it made for some fun stories! I was able to (for the most part) successfully compartamentalize my life here in TZ and my vacation, so I focused on enjoying being with my family and didn't convert any prices into Tanzanian shillings :) I mostly felt at home in the 1st world, and certainly felt at home returning here. I think it'll be very different going home for good, not just for a visit, but one thing I realized I'm going to LOVE is people not automatically assuming I'm a foreigner/outsider. Maybe people in Spain could tell I was American (I could certainly pick them out), but people didn't stare at me as I walked down the street, didn't treat me differently from everyone else, didn't make ridiculous assumptions about things I know or don't know, and I didn't make any little kids cry! But as frustrated as I get here, it felt good to come back. And 1 kid in my village who used to stare at me for about 40 seconds before starting to whimper and finally back away, crying and reaching for his mom, likes me now! He was part of a group of 4 kids who followed me to and from the store, all the while talking (well, babbling) and smiling last week!
Not so much has changed -- I teach, have my ups and downs, visit the orphanage, see other PCVs, rarely cook, read, write letters. I'm healthy, happy, and even clean sometimes :) Still a vegetarian, still love nyc, and still a chocoholic. I also still love hearing from you all; packages, letters, emails, phone calls are always appreciated! (1 thing that has changed, I'm trying to stop using the phrase 'you guys' after reading an article from Bitch magazine that pointed out how it's used interchangeably for male, female, or coed groups but 'you ladies' or another all-female equivalent is never used for either a male or coed group. And I occasionally wear pants to school -- and use the opportunity to talk with teachers about sexism. Recently, I had 1 teacher promise me she would wear her nice trousers to school one day!)

I hope you all are doing well, and thanks for reading about me!